In fact , and given the foreseeable market (measured in *actual* monthly sales) , I´m not so sure on sustainability in the long run.

That same factory and investment can make and sell in a Month, say, 10000 bicycles , home theater systems, washing machines, clothes steam pressing machines or most any other product amounting to way higher and more stable sales.

I suspect lots of love,pride, or personal commitment behind this, more than plain old "business" mentality, and wish them the best.

I suspect lots of love,pride, or personal commitment behind this, more than plain old "business" mentality, and wish them the best.

Invest millions today make sense, this passionate WE Team bring to younger generation a factory and interesting jobs to can make preservation & development of the music reproduction excellence heritage of his grandparents. Western Electric Factory Tour • Vintage Tube Services A challenge YES

Perhaps, given that the acquisition of the EI equipment has fallen through, im wondering what they are going to build besides 300B?

Indirectly heated tubes require better process control and more specialized equipment. Furthermore their ability to source the filament ribbon will decide the final quality of the product. There is only so much you can compensate by gold plating grid wires, and doing longer cook outs on the vacuum pumps.

For instance that grid winder is Old-old in therms of vacuum tube manufacture, later models will interrupt winding between grid sections so the operator doesn't have to manually trim the excess wire off. The last automated versions, will wind cut and stretch grids automatically.

Richardson electronics acquired the machines from the USA branch of Philips (Amperex) however my gut feeling tells me that stuff was scrapped after the FTC filed an antitrust against them.

There will always people with money to whom £3000 for a tube will mean nothing but they are in limited numbers in such a niche market. Once all of them have bought such tubes that market then dries up due to their longevity.